This isn’t a reassessment of an artist or its music. It’s a reassessment of age.
You see, I think 4 Non Blondes suck. But I didn’t always feel like that.
There are songs that mark our lives. Some remain with us forever, others get left behind, becoming nothing more than a weird smile to strangers and a familiar look for friends. I don’t think 4 Non Blondes belong to any of these categories. When “What’s Up?” started to pop up on the radio, “alternative” music was in full swing. The crying yelp of Eddie Vedder imitators was ubiquitous, sure, but it was within this context that made 4 Non Blondes sound like a revolution to me, a band that could change your life. They had the Bikini Kill lineup (three girls and a male guitarist), and their look was relatively weird. They were, to my 11-year-old mind, perfect.
And yet, I’m pretty sure 4 Non Blondes didn’t change any lives. “What’s Up?” is ridiculously simple and traditional. Singer (and later songwriter for Pink and Christina Aguilera) Linda Perry has a tremendous voice, yet she tended to overdo her vocal performance to the point of annoyance. It is, in essence, a trite song that frequently comes up on classic radio but still fails to capture the moment to the degree that songs like “Come As You Are” or “MMM Bop” did in the 90s. Everything about the song is trapped in 1993, even in the sense that it could be called “good.” But if you were like me at that moment and with a certain frame of mind, it was the best thing ever. I miss the feeling I used to get from the song’s simple chord progression.
